Beginner using an old, small cabinet

[Kharn]

I'm a total n00b to arcade games (Mom never gave me a quarter as a kid), so I grabbed this old cabinet off of Craigslist for $40 and scrounged a P3 750 and 21" CRT from my basement to give MAME and the classics a shot.  The cabinet started life as a golf game, was converted to Mortal Kombat 2 by a previous owner and stripped for parts by the last owner.  The only problem is how skinny it is, the panel is 24x12", so I'm going to be stuck with just two sticks for the time being (no track ball for Missile Command?   ) until I figure out the layout I like and make sure I'm still interested, etc.  After that, Dad's woodworking/cabinetry shop should be pretty helpful expanding it to a proper width to fit the ball and spinner.  

I'm also planning to upgrade the computer hardware in a few months, I wouldn't mind if it could also serve as a second MythTV backend.

Other than only playing against skinny people, any suggestions on button layouts for such a small cabinet? I ordered a total of 29 buttons, I was thinking 3x2 action and 2 thumb buttons per player, 2 coins/starts, 4 MAME and a few for pinball. I went with Happ 8-way competition sticks, I-Pac VE control board.

[spauldingd]

29 is a lot of buttons.  I assume the pinball buttons will be on the side so that will help.  That said, I think you still might be able to squeeze in a smaller trackball.  It would need to be in the center and above where the sticks would be (close to the screen).  Having the trackball makes working in Windows so much easier than having to pull out a mouse from somewhere.

If it helps, this is a picture of my panel that I admit is a bit cluttered.  Its 29 inches wide.  If I were to do it over again I would leave off the spinner and put some pinball buttons on the side but I love everything else about it.  Now that the kids are older, I've thought about switching out some of the colored buttons.  It was nice telling the young kids to use the green button to jump, yellow to run, etc.

Dave in Des Moines

[Gorotsuki]

Just judging from the picture
it looks like you got a nice
cabinet to work with.

Your control panel is about the
same size as mine.
I could only fit one joystick
with 6 buttons and a 2 1/4" trackball
with 2 buttons nicely into it.

I don't personally think you
can do more than a 2 player setup
in that space. I know I couldn't.

[IG-88]

I'll be betting you"ll be hitting elbows with 2 players. Maybe ask yourself exactly how many one vs one player games you'll actually be playing. For me, most of the games I like are alternating players so a single joy would work.

On the other hand I love Robotron and Space Dungeon so.....

[Kharn]

I think I'm going to mound a pair of USB jacks on the metal front piece below the panel, when I expand it I can replace the metal with wood and build a proper keyboard drawer.

[ark_ader]

Stick a X-Arcade Tank in there!

[HaRuMaN]

Stick a X-Arcade Tank in there!

[mwong168]

Stick a X-Arcade Tank in there!

Too late for that now since he already ordered his parts but I would be against this idea anyways since...

After that, Dad's woodworking/cabinetry shop should be pretty helpful expanding it to a proper width to fit the ball and spinner.  

His dad could help his make a control panel and just a either an I-PAC (Ps2 or USB) from ultimarc.com or KeyWiz (Ps2)/GPWiz (USB) from groovygamegear.com and you will be good to go.  Wiring up your control panel is not that bad and helpful down the road if you have any issues to troubleshoot.

Also, it is nice to have dedicated buttons for a trackball but the buttons from the P1 or P2 can double up as this function as well.  Nice cabinet find 

[apfelanni]

i d like 2 say less buttons and more cpu power . whats the use of such an overstated setup and most of the games wont work properly coz of ur old p3 ?  3-4 buttons per player + start will do fine for more than 9x of all games. extra coin in or start-pause-exit is luxury.  quality beats quantity of components .  u may checkout some japanese candy or cocktail layouts. they ll do fine on smaller panels . 2o inch wide is enough for a minimal 2 player setup . 24 should do fine .
 

[javeryh]

How wide is a standard Taito cab?  Knievel got a 3" TB plus a 2P set up in one of those CPs.

[HanoiBoi]

I've got a 24" x 9" Control Panel in my machine right now (actually a little less than 24" inside the cab frame) and I don't have issues with 2 players. 

In that ~24" span, I have the following;

(1)(C)                  (S)(B)                  (C)(2)


 (J) (B)(B)   (B)(B)           (J) (B)(B)   (B)(B)
             (B)                               (B)

1=Player 1 Start
2=Player 2 Start
C=Coin
S=Spinner (The spinner was thrown into a previously drilled hole.  It will later be moved down slightly, or another added for both Players)
B=Button
J=Joystick

And that's all within a 5.5" vertical.  The additional 3.5" is just about right for resting the palms when playing.  With 12" vertical, you should be fine.

I don't currently have a trackball, but would like to eventually add one.  That 3" trackball does look nice in Kneivel's panel.  But, is it too close to Player 2's stick?  (Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang  ?)

[HanoiBoi]

Just judging from the picture
it looks like you got a nice
cabinet to work with.

Your control panel is about the
same size as mine.
I could only fit one joystick
with 6 buttons and a 2 1/4" trackball
with 2 buttons nicely into it.

I don't personally think you
can do more than a 2 player setup
in that space. I know I couldn't.

Gorotsuki, do you have any issues with your trackball with regard to banging your hands?  Could you provide a pic of your CP?

[Epyx]

If you look in my sig you can see my bartop (used a 25" wide Cp) and my current project 26.5" and they easily fit 6 buttons for 2 players and a trackball centered...no space issues.  Most of my friends are on the larger end of the spectrum.

24" will be tight but should work if arranged properly...you definitely don't require 29 buttons.  If you want 3-6 buttons per player...all you really need is a player 1/2 set.  So 8 - 14 buttons in total for your CP.

[HanoiBoi]

If you look in my sig you can see my bartop (used a 25" wide Cp) and my current project 26.5" and they easily fit 6 buttons for 2 players and a trackball centered...no space issues.  Most of my friends are on the larger end of the spectrum.

24" will be tight but should work if arranged properly...you definitely don't require 29 buttons.  If you want 3-6 buttons per player...all you really need is a player 1/2 set.  So 8 - 14 buttons in total for your CP.

Epyx, can I ask what your measurements are from the trackballs to the P2 joysticks?  Also, are there certain trackball games that play better for you (Centipede, Reactor, etc.) and some worse (Golden Tee) with regard to space?  Or, are all game 'good'? 

[Kharn]

I got really pissed off at the P3 last week (no boot from USB, refused to boot with USB keyboard and the harddrive I wanted to use was loaded with bad sectors) and went a little crazy at Newegg.  Now its a 2.4ghz P4 dual-core, 2gb ram, Nvidia 8400 graphics, etc, running Mythbuntu as a front end for my DVR system. I need to play around a little more to get MythGame up and running, hopefully tonight.

Here's my temporary control panel (may paint it, not sure), until Dad and I can sit down and plan the expanded one. I also snagged chunks of pre-finished Formica countertop and had the idea of using them for a single-player control box (one stick & StreetFighter buttons) for my upstairs system (Mythbuntu DVR) so I could sit on the couch (also found a 20' USB A-B cable for free) and play by myself (may build a second one that links to the first) vs standing in the basement (something like this guy's).



All of my Happ controls have arrived, computer's ready to go, but I picked the free airmail option for an Ipac thinking they were in the US (EST apparently means both Eastern standard time and Euro summer time).  If I'm waiting much longer, a busted PS2 keyboard is getting hacked so I can at least play by myself.

[Kharn]

IPac showed up in today's mail, still have to sand the panel some more before I can mount everything. 

[Erik]

I saved this pic a while back.  I don't remember who made it but I thought he did a great job of spacing everything in a 25" CP.   

[smalltownguy]

Here's my CP -- 24" wide cab, and still enough room to work with.

[Kharn]

A quick game of me vs me Street Fighter shows P2's 5 & 6 aren't working, should not be too hard to track down tomorrow. I was really concerned with P1's joystick & 4-8 were not working, one peek under the control panel and I saw the ground wire for that group wasn't connected to the terminal block.  

ETA:
SDLMame did not have P2's 5-8 defined, took about two minutes with the multimeter to realize it was a software problem.